Marine Drive opens to public, Jamshedpur gets an infrastructure boost

Jamshedpur, June 27: The infrastructure facilities in the Steel City received a major boost as the Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Saturday inaugurated the 11 kms long 4-lane Western Corridor constructed by Tata Steel.

The Western Corridor has been constructed to provide a safe, smooth and uninterrupted connectivity to the Jamshedpur city with the existing network of primary highways (NH & SH). It will also serve as a city bypass road.

Appreciating Tata Steel for taking initiative to construct the Western Corridor, the Chief Minister said that the Government is aimed to work with the corporate sector jointly for the greater benefit of the society. He also asked Tata Steel to take steps to open office of Tata Consultancy at Ranchi so that the youths migrating to other cities can avail benefits here.

Prior to this, T V Narendran, managing director, Tata Steel India and South East Asia, said that ‘Tata Steel is committed to developing Jamshedpur as one of the best industrial towns in India.

As part of the endeavor to develop the city infrastructure, the Western Corridor has been constructed in the steel city to help improve connectivity and address the traffic-related hassles. The Company will continue to give shape to such projects in future’.

The project starts from T junction at river pump house (leading to Mango Bridge) and follows the marine drive peripheral route all along the river banks of both Kharkai and Subarnarekha rivers up‐to Betia Park/ATBCL Bridge.

The project worth Rs 120-crore passing along Subernarekha river linking Sakchi-Kadma-Sonari to Adityapur Toll bridge was scheduled to end by June 2014 but after talks with the slum dwellers the work got a boost in September 2014 but a stretch of 50 meters along Sati Ghat with nearly 25-odd families refusing to relocate from their settlement had put a hurdle the Tata Steel’s logistic department earlier deadline of November end 2014.

Marine Drive Western Corridor project links Sakchi-Kadma-Sonari with Adityapur toll bridge and was conceived to keep heavy vehicles off city roads, thus getting rid of traffic snarls in Jamshedpur.

Notably, the 11-kilometres-long marine drive is being set up to keep the steel city free from the movement of heavy vehicles from inside the city. The Rs 120 crores worth project which comes under the Tata Steel’s Western Corridor Project was started in June 2012 and was scheduled to be end by June 2014.

But due to the encroachment hurdle along Kadma side, the work was suspended at the side where there was encroachment.

It may be mentioned that in view of the expansion plans of Tata Steel and other Tata Group companies in Jamshedpur, Tata Steel Limited had engaged reputed Consultant M/s L & T Rambole and M/s Consulting Engineering Services of Delhi to do a transport study of Jamshedpur.

The management of the steel major had declared that the vehicular communication through the marine drive will start soon through one side of the under-constructed marine drive.

The company had declared that the vehicular will start plying through one side of the marine drive the work of which was supposed to be completed in the April this year. After the new arrangement with the bustee dwellers, the company had expected that the marine drive work will be completed in the next three months.

Jamshedpur, over a period of time, has grown into urban agglomerate by virtue of its strong socio-economic base. It has registered rapid growth of population compounded with rapid development of trade & industries and it is poised to grow into a populous industrialized city necessitating development of suitable road infrastructure to support its growth. The Western Corridor, constructed by Tata Steel will help in answering this urgent need of the city.

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By Goutam Shankar Das Jharkhand is 18 years old today. Frog-jumping over its nascent days, it is now in its adolescent era. Irrespective of political observations, Jharkhand has indeed progressed though a bit on the slower side. Jharkhand has seen seven governments in its run as a separate state. Each government has had programs chalked […]